What It Takes To Be A Worship Leader
September 24th, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Theology
This fall marks my seventh year as a “worship leader”, 8th as a member of the music team. I was brought in to the team way too early, and given leadership of a band far prematurely by our current standards. However, after talking with pastors and leaders looking back at that time, I believe we were well within God’s will in making those decisions.
This letter is an attempt at defining a few points of what it takes to be a worship leader, lead worshiper, and maybe on more general terms, a mature follower of Christ. I believe that at a very basic level, a growing follower of Christ with musical skill and some leadership skill (that is a combination of organizational and relational skill) can lead worship. However, throwing a young (immature) Christian in this position too soon can lead to pride “the condemnation of the devil” (1 Tim 3:6). By the grace of God alone, I have made it thus far (why Come Thou Fount is one of my favorite hymns) and I want to attempt to identify some key areas in which God is working on me that sustain me in this ministry.
I hope that this letter will help challenge, instruct, and motivate young and aspiring worship leaders, as well as older members of the music ministry in understanding what it looks like to “offer your life as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual act of worship” which I believe is what will happen if one has truly accepted God’s grace (the gospel).
This list is not comprehensive and I should probably go and put the scripture references I draw this from in-line, but it’s a list of things I see the young guys in our church who want to lead worship needing, and thing I myself need constantly.
In that spirit, a worship leader is:
A passionate lover of God
Read the psalms. What is David’s (and other Psalmists) reaction (physical and emotional) to God’s work in their lives? Dancing! Shouting! Singing! Playing of instruments! Raising of hands! Bowing prostrate in humility, reverence and awe. Surrender. Repentance. Utter, complete, and unique reliance on God as sustainer. Weeping. Tears. Inability to sleep because of obsession with connection with God. Verbal proclamation of God’s work, majesty, power, and dominion to everyone they come into contact with. Public humiliation of themselves because they are so exuberant about God. Utter hatred of God’s enemies (note: in present day, these are not people… Ephesians 6:12). Utter rejection of the ways of God’s enemies.
- Do you hunger for God’s word?
- Do you yearn for time to get away alone with God?
- Does your soul pant for God as a deer pants for water?
- Are you anxiously awaiting the next time you can get together with God’s people to praise him?
In Acts (and reports from the epistles) how did the early Christians’ lives change as a result of reception of the Gospel? Persecution, martyrdom, selling of their possessions as needed. Constant proclamation of the gospel. Also: uniquely and signally:
A lover of people
A majority of the New Testament commands to Christians fall in this arena. It is our chief mark as a follower of Christ. It is the first and foremost thing on God’s mind. People.
As Christians we genuinely care about and desire to love, serve, build, help, and heal people. We care about the destiny and health of their souls. We grieve to see one in need.
This is purely a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is not something that comes naturally to me. I am an introvert. People, by nature, bother me. I’d rather be alone with a book, my wife, and my daughter, or my close friends. Being with anyone else is draining on my soul without Christ’s Spirit in me. But his Spirit in me causes me to see people as he does, like sheep without a shepherd, helpless and harassed, and His Spirit causes me to want to care for them.
As a worship leader, this is our desire for people.
They do not exist for my benefit. To make me feel good, serve me, praise me. Women do not exist for my use. This is why a worship leader is:
Pure in their relationships
- How do you treat your sisters?
- What is in your heart and head about women?
- Are girls in the church potential mates or sisters to be protected and served?
- Are non-believing women objects of my lust or enslaved, dead, souls, in need of Jesus to rescue them?
For years as a Christian, I looked at women as potential dates. My interaction with them was for the purpose of impressing them and subtly seducing them and capturing their hears for my use. One particular summer, Christ pinned me to the floor and changed my mind about this. My heart was broken and the way I saw women changed totally from that point forward. Christian women are LITERALLY my mothers and sisters. Non-Christian women are enslaved souls that are constantly abused by men and in need of rescue and regeneration of the Holy Spirit. My interaction with them is solely along this line. My desire now is to protect their hearts from myself and other men around them. This must be a worship leaders heart or you will become (or remain) a distraction to women in worship leading. This is the most common problem I hear of with women and young men leading worship.
I believe this is the primary stumbling block of young men in relationships, but it is certainly not the only one. Peace and unity with our brothers and sisters is paramount in our position as worship leader. Proactive pursuit of reconciliation is the mark of a mature Christian (Romans 12:9-21). This requires a great deal of humility which is why a worship leader is:
Humble
This is my weakest area. It is a weakness that is passed on to those around me. It is a weakness my wife suffers from (in different ways) because of me. It is the biggest stumbling block in my life.
I have always been a very confident person. I have always been told that I can do anything I want. I got excellent grades in High School (and not so good grades in college). I pride myself (there it is again) in my non-conformity and “bucking the system” and “rocking boats”. I have experienced a lot of success in my life and have been given a bit of skill in a few areas that garners a lot of praise. I have always been fairly sharp intellectually and thus (along with my large size and loud voice) I have always “won” arguments frequently.
This is something I pray continually God will route out of me.
We must realize that this ministry is not “my” thing, but is God’s thing.
We must never be demanding of our own way. (1 Cor 13:5)
We must submit our ideas to council rather than simply move forward on our own.
We must actively seek, listen to, and act on reproof and correction from ANY source!
We must be aware that we have blind spots (though by nature we will not know what they are) and seek help in identifying and bringing accountability and support to them.
It is difficult to say enough about this area. I am grieved at my own life in this area and what I have seen result from people close to me catch this (or not be helped in their own) weakness. It has hurt relationships and hindered spiritual grown and effective ministry. We must repent of our pride and be humble, or else be humiliated.
An interestingly related area is that a worship leader is:
Unafraid of man’s opinion
Leaders of the music ministry probably receive the second greatest amount of criticism (next to pastors leading the church) of anyone in the world.
Having sought God’s will in his word, through prayer, study, meditation, and discussion in council, and being confident of his direction (a confidence that must not be arrived at quickly or carelessly), we must not shrink back because of complaint and criticism. However, we must address our critics in love, patience, and gentle instruction, examining their criticism in humility and with council to see if there is truth in it, or benefit to be drawn from it. We must view our critics as our teachers, not our enemies.
A skilled musician and artist
Last and least, a worship leader must care about the art. We must not settle for the status quo or for mediocrity, but must seek always to strive for the highest possible (possible is a key word) level of excellence.
There is no biblical command to have music in a church gathering. There is a command that we must do everything with all our heart as if serving the Lord.
We must constantly pursue creativity and progression of our craft. We must realize that we are never “great”, and that there is always another level to be achieved.
In seeking for “relevance” we will find that it is not so much a stylistic concern as an authenticity concern. As long as we are making the music that is really in our heart, and everything listed above is in place, we will do well.
> Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. > > – Colossians 3:16
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 7:55 am and is filed under Ministry Philosophy, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Have you ever been to Rochester?